That's why I did not even bother to start mining namecoins . It was obvious that arbitragers will even thing out quickly and it is so much simpler to just continue mining bitcoins than mess with all the namecoin thing (unless you really want those namecoins).

In my mind, the profitability in mining namecoins comes from the future increases in price.

Assuming the namecoin:btc price follows the namecoin:btc difficulty, then with increased hashing power going into namecoin to chase the "easy money" (assumption) then the namecoin:btc ratio will get closer to 1:1 than it is now (about 15:1).

Which means that priced in btc, namecoins will get more expensive. Making them worth diverting a few MHash. Not to mention that namecoins actually "do something", giving them an extrinsic value that should (in theory) drive their usage and growth.

Namecoins are a clone of bitcoins with narrower adoption. Their marginal utility of alternate DNS is more than offset by not having an established ecosystem like bitcoins. The same risks bitcoins faced earlier on are there for namecoins.

The only way to buy and sell namecoins is through bitcoins, they are tied to the fortunes of bitcoin.

To invent a random demonstrating number, 99.9% of people are not willing to set up a browser to use a separate DNS server, or even bother to change their DNS in Windows, to access some .bit sites.

Usability is more important than domain seizures to the overwhelming majority of the world's web surfers.Namecoin is made with the domain owner's protection in mind. What about visitors? How many average people will tweak with settings just to access some domain subset?

Whereas anyone with a normal internet connection, Linux, Windows, Mac, can open a bitcoin wallet within a minute or less or recieve payments.

Few people want to buy something that gives you a domain not accessible by anyone besides a few thousand people in the world.

That's why I did not even bother to start mining namecoins . It was obvious that arbitragers will even thing out quickly and it is so much simpler to just continue mining bitcoins than mess with all the namecoin thing (unless you really want those namecoins).

Its so easy though. It took me a little time tinkering to get solo mining working (pool mining is much easier). But really, you can switch between namecoin mining and BTC in literally 2 seconds. There's nothing to it. And I'm just your average nerd, not major geek.

All discussion as to the usability of namecoin aside, difficulty at parity actually means taking a loss mining namecoin.

Mining in a pool has a pool fee off the top, then there is a fee to transfer the namecoins from the pool to you, then a fee to transfer the namecoins to the exchange, the exchange charges a fee to exchange namecoins to bitcoins, then there is a fee to withdraw the bitcoins. This is all before the regular fees of bitcoin, 5 fees. They may be small individually but as you use it they add up. So if you generate the same number of bitcoin-valued namecoins you are taking a loss over directly generating bitcoins.

All discussion as to the usability of namecoin aside, difficulty at parity actually means taking a loss mining namecoin.

Mining in a pool has a pool fee off the top, then there is a fee to transfer the namecoins from the pool to you, then a fee to transfer the namecoins to the exchange, the exchange charges a fee to exchange namecoins to bitcoins, then there is a fee to withdraw the bitcoins. This is all before the regular fees of bitcoin, 5 fees. They may be small individually but as you use it they add up. So if you generate the same number of bitcoin-valued namecoins you are taking a loss over directly generating bitcoins.

Who made that exchange site, adding fees to withdraw, destroyed namecoins trading. Congratulation!

All discussion as to the usability of namecoin aside, difficulty at parity actually means taking a loss mining namecoin.

Mining in a pool has a pool fee off the top, then there is a fee to transfer the namecoins from the pool to you, then a fee to transfer the namecoins to the exchange, the exchange charges a fee to exchange namecoins to bitcoins, then there is a fee to withdraw the bitcoins. This is all before the regular fees of bitcoin, 5 fees. They may be small individually but as you use it they add up. So if you generate the same number of bitcoin-valued namecoins you are taking a loss over directly generating bitcoins.

Who made that exchange site, adding fees to withdraw, destroyed namecoins trading. Congratulation!